


The Christmas Spirit?

by LadybugSin



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Age Difference, Aged-Up Character(s), Awkwardness, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, F/M, Mistletoe, other characters appear as well but aren't fully mentioned, this was also fun to write and super last minute like damn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 17:02:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8999362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadybugSin/pseuds/LadybugSin
Summary: There’s a Christmas celebration at the Agreste house for the first time in eleven years, and everyone is feeling awkward around each other.
Then a big secret gets out among family and friends.





	

**Author's Note:**

> 'Cause I wanted to write something fluffy in time for Christmas and I wanted to do a mistletoe kiss. Can you blame me?

“Sir, I’ve cleared your schedule for the night and have also instructed the staff to set up for tonight’s Christmas celebration.”

Gabriel stared at Nathalie with a pointed look. She had to be joking. There was no way she would dare to clear _his_ schedule and instruct _his_ staff to prepare for something like a Christmas celebration. The last time he had even dared to take part in one was eleven years ago, and that was the **first** Christmas without Antoinette (and also the one where his son had idiotically decided to run away for about an hour, but that wasn’t the point, was it?)

Based on his assistant’s expression, however, it was evident that yes, she was serious and had actually dared to do such a thing. Well, he certainly wasn’t going to be getting any work done tonight then, was he? Thankfully he had already finished the final designs for the winter line before December had hit and any meetings or fittings he was supposed to attend to for the day were merely formalities and not actually part of the crunch time.

“Nathalie, you do realize that if we were to set up for any sort of celebration, the estate would not be the best location. Why are you even bothering to do this in the first place?”

He noticed the corner of her mouth twitch a bit. Oh, was the woman hiding a smile then? Shocking. But he could feel the slightest hint of happiness almost radiating off of the woman. She might be good at hiding her emotions and making herself true to her surname, but to actually feel emotion coming from her was still a surprise.

“Because, sir, Adrien is going to be home for Christmas for the first time in a few years after being abroad, and I think it’s about time that I let my son have a celebration at home, with friends and family instead of watching him walk out the door to go somewhere else for the night.”

Wait, did she? Did she just refer to Adrien as her son?

“And another thing. I know how you feel about Christmas, but in no way will I have you ruin this for him and everyone else. I’ve also already taken the liberty to invite his friends ahead of time, along with a few people you could potentially discuss business with. You’ll want to be busy, I’m sure, but I can’t have you hide away this time around.”

“Nathalie. I. . . He’s my son, you know.”

Nathalie chose that moment to grin, moving to exit the room, fingers flying across her tablet. Setting up food services to let the kitchen staff have a break no doubt.

“I know that,” she said, opening the door. “But he’s mine, too, at this point. Maybe your present to him for Christmas can be, oh, I don’t know, _being his father_?”

With that, Nathalie took her exit, the door clicking shut behind her.

Gabriel sat in silence, staring at the space she had been occupying just moments ago before saying to no one (apart from maybe Nooroo,) “It is _really_ hard to be his father when I’m **dating** his ex-girlfriend.”

***

Later that night, the party was in full swing. Marinette was surprised when she had gotten the email from Nathalie about a Christmas party at the Agreste estate, nearly opting to decline when she learned that it was because Adrien was back in town after being gone for so long.

See, if it was just her having to be professional with Gabriel while he had possible business partners milling about, she would have been fine. She could pretend that they weren’t more than partners themselves, after all. She had to squash down her attraction to him for a long while during her apprenticeship with him, so having to squash them down again shouldn’t have been a problem.

But to be around with Adrien during a Christmas party and not really have a place to run and hide in, along with pretending that her relationship with Gabriel was strictly professional and nothing else at all? God that was going to be terrible.

The designer had opted to keep herself distracted by talking with friends and former classmates, seeing where they had all managed to get to in life. For example, Alya was now a well-known reporter, though she still ran the Ladyblog as best as she could. Nino had a music contract set up for him, and he currently worked as a DJ for different locations (including tonight, where he was playing music lined up for the evening or songs that guests were requesting, and all free of charge since this party was _technically_ for Adrien.)

But if there was one thing that was making her somewhat uncomfortable throughout the night, it was how anyone she talked to always asked about one thing, and one thing only.

What happened to her to give her a nasty scar on her back?

She would wave it off, try to direct the conversations to some other topic, but could never give a straight answer. The scar in question was a nasty one, nastier than others she had earned over the past several years. It was jagged, skin raised, and so much paler than her actual complexion, which only made her choice in dress (a red one of her own design with a slit in the skirt to allow for more movement, sheer fabric for the sleeves, with little hints of gold throughout to add an extra shimmer, and an open back that ended just above the small of her back) make the scar appear to stand out even more than it normally would.

Marinette had gained it during a fight with a creature that resembled a dragon of sorts, its claws easily tearing through the suit given to her by the miraculous. Her miraculous cure hadn’t even done much to heal the injury, and it was only after a visit to Master Fu’s that she learned her miraculous cure wouldn’t restore injuries caused by magical monsters.

That answer certainly made her stop wondering where all of Gabriel’s scars had come from, after all.

But with each question asked about her own scar, and the few about the other, much smaller ones that only a few keen eyes would notice, Marinette had started to wish she never came to the party in the first place.

It got even worse when she wasn’t able to avoid Adrien much longer, crossing paths with him before she even realized it. What she hadn’t been expecting was Lila standing by his side. She had known that they had gotten together sometime during Adrien’s sudden trip, but she didn’t expect the other to be at the party as well. But of course she’d want to be with her boyfriend.

“A-Adrien! It, um. . . H-how have you been?” she asked, trying to hold his gaze before ultimately breaking away. He couldn’t look at her for long either anyway. They had parted on good terms and managed to stay friends, but when she had actually began feeling an attraction towards his father (and have said attraction returned,) well. . .

Things were quite awkward in the Agreste household because of it. No wonder Adrien decided to run off for two years.

“Marinette. . . I’ve been fine. I guess. How have you and Father been doing? I would ask him, but he seems perfectly content talking to some of the more important guests here than he would be talking to me.” There was a hint of bitterness in her voice. No love lost for Gabriel it seemed. These two seriously needed to work better on their communication skills.

"W-we’ve been doing alright. Been kept busy, trying to release new fashion lines and, um, trying to come up with more to stay ahead of the game. Y-you, um. Y-you were gone for a while. Did you and Lila enjoy yourselves?”

Lila was the one who decided to respond, her words preceded by her leaning heavily against Adrien, arms draped across her boyfriend. “Oh, it was absolutely fantastic, Marinette! Adrien finally got to actually do what he wanted to do and not listen to fashion designers bark orders or shove him into clothes and pose him around like he was some sort of doll!”

Marinette could only manage a stiff smile as a response, not even sure anything she could say would truly make this encounter easier. It was obvious that she and Adrien didn’t even want to be near each other, and she was wondering if Lila’s words were actually just a vague way of telling her to back off.

“I see. W-well, um, I hope you both enjoy the party!”

She was quick to hurry away from them, walking over to the refreshment table. She could have stayed longer, talked a bit more, maybe actually try to dispel the sheer discomfort that would always crop up if they were near one another. Certainly Gabriel had tried to speak with him as well (he did) but whatever happened ended up being so stiff and strange (it was) that he opted to talk to others about deals and what not.

***

By the time the guests that had purely been invited to distract Gabriel had left, the party seemed to regain some energy. Nino was playing remixes of classic Christmas songs, friends were all dancing with one another, and Marinette was ready to leave the party and head right to her room. Actually, she was going to do just that. It would be better than hanging around her any longer, especially after another run in with Adrien and Lila.

Only this time Gabriel had been there as well, and the tension between father and son was thicker than it had been years ago. So much progress between the two of them, down the drain.

She began making her way towards the exit, only to find her path blocked by a very familiar and very vexing blonde.

“Chloé.” Marinette bit back her frustrated sigh as she spoke the other’s name, not bothering to give her the curtesy of looking directly at her. Instead, she pretended to be far more interested in the fabric of her sleeve. Was that a tiny tear that would need some minor stitching? “To what to I owe the pleasure?”

“Marinette. I just wanted to say that the dress? Surprisingly looks good on you, despite the cheap material that you had probably put it together with. Although, I’ve been hearing something about this dress of yours showing off scars? Which is insane, because- oh, my gosh!” At some point while talking, Chloé had managed to circle the young designer and halt behind her. She could feel the blonde’s eyes burning against the scar that seemed to stand out more and more as the night went on.

“Chloé, please, I’m tired, I don’t have time to-!”

“Marinette, this thing is atrocious! It totally pulls attention away from anything you thought you would be flaunting tonight. Not like you have much to flaunt to begin with, or someone to impress.” Chloé scoffed, moving so she was standing before the other once more. “Honestly, did you even think this was a good idea? Or are you just trying to ruin yourself for others? Such a nasty looking thing. I bet whatever caused it was a freak accident, am I right? And it truly looks like something that would put you out of commission!”

Chloé was more than likely going to continue, but shut up immediately. Marinette wasn’t sure why the other had gone quite.

Then she felt a familiar hand on her shoulder, not even having to turn and look to see that Gabriel had come by.

“I do hope you haven’t spent your entire evening mocking the guests, Miss Bourgeois. And really.” Gabriel moved his hand from Marinette’s shoulder to her back, fingers just lightly brushing against the raised skin, already tracing shapes and the like against it. He was trying to calm her down, or at least keep her from lashing out at Chloé.

“Scars tend to be just another outward sign of beauty. Something I’m sure Miss Dupain-Cheng knows about all too well.”

She wanted to smile at him, she really did. But she had noticed something above them that she should have moved away from moments before he came up. Marinette cleared her throat, drawing Gabriel’s attention to her as she pointed above them.

Of all the things to be under, it had to be a mistletoe.

Even worse was the fact that everyone at the party could see them. The only sound breaking any silence that fell was the still playing music from the DJ booth. All eyes were on them, and Marinette felt so certain that if she found them in the crowd, Adrien and Lila would be the only ones not looking at the two currently trapped beneath a mistletoe.

Her eyes widened when she located them, shocked to see the small smile on Adrien’s face. Lila was leaning against him again, her eyes narrowed, but her stance only made it seem like she was mildly annoyed. Maybe. . . Maybe he really was doing okay with this then? It had been two years, it-

“You both know what you’re supposed to do, right?” Chloé’s sharp voice suddenly cut into her thoughts, dragging her attention back to the blonde. You’re both under the mistletoe, so you’ve got to kiss. But that wouldn’t really be a good thing, now would it?”

She was smirking at them, and Marinette could only guess that her reason for sticking them both under here was to make it seem like yes, rumors about how she got her position were actually true and she was sleeping with her boss. Gabriel had the legal team and the money to make the problem disappear on his end, but not on hers.

Unless. . .

Marinette looked up at Gabriel, who appeared to have his attention on Adrien and Lila. She nudged him just a bit, enough to actually draw his attention towards her.

“I’d rather. . . Not do such a thing beneath this,” he admitted quietly, not sure what to make of the smile he had seen on Adrien’s face. Come to think of it, he wasn’t even sure what to think of the smile on Marinette’s own face.

“They were going to find out at some point anyway. Now then. Come here.”

She was gentle with pulling him down towards her, leaning up only just enough that he didn’t have to bend too much. Her lips just barely brushed against his own before she properly kissed him, pressing herself close to him and making the scene very soft, yet still very intimate.

They didn’t see Lila shooting daggers at anyone who was pulling out their phone to reveal this information. They didn’t hear Adrien quietly telling Alya to help them all keep this quiet for as long as possible. They certainly didn’t see or hear Chloé’s reaction to her plan absolutely failing.

Their attention was focused on just each other, the kiss breaking after a moment more, gentle smiles upon both of their faces.

“Merry Christmas.”


End file.
